Laganas, Zante, GR
Filippos Papadopoulos
Laganas with a permanent population of less than 550 residents, is a popular mass tourism destination, located in the southern part of the island of Zante, 4 km away from the island's airport and 6 km away from Zakynthos town. The not-long-ago fishermen’s’ village, Laganas has gradually become a party destination for ‘18 to 30’ visitors offering over 20.000 beds in mostly mid to low range hotel accommodation.
Within the coastal and marina area of Laganas and Laganas Bay, the presence of important migrant avifauna and endemic flora, as well as habitats like sand dunes and halophile vegetation systems and meadows of the sea grass, the endangered monk seal Monachus Monachus and most importantly the nesting areas of the Loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta, determined the establishment of the National Marine Park of Zakynthos in 1999. The objective of the Park is the protection and conservation of animal and plants’ species as well as their habitats, which constitute an important natural heritage at national and international level. The area is also included in the Natura 2000 network.
The bibliographic research and mapping analysis conducted, proves that the area of ZNMP is an ecosystem of the highest environmental value, threatened by anthropogenic pressures mainly related to the overexploitation of the park’s resources, illegal tourism development, conflicting uses, inefficient legal framework and policy implementation.
EChO Tourism
